Thailand-Laos rail deal

Thailand-Laos rail deal

BANGKOK (DPA): Thailand and Laos signed a transportation
agreement yesterday paving the way for the two countries to be
linked by railway, Thai radio reports said.

The agreement was signed in Vientiane, Laos, by Lao
Transportation Minister Phao Bounnaphol and his Thai counterpart
Suwat Liptapanlop, said the Thai News Agency.

The transportation treaty cleared the last legal obstacle to
the construction of a rail link over the Friendship Bridge which
spans the Mekong River, defining the border between the two
neighboring countries.

Two months ago the Lao government granted a concession to the
Thai firm Pacific Transportation Company Limited, a subsidiary of
the Sahaviriya OA Group, to build more than 1,200 kilometer of
railway tracks in Laos, including a 12-kilometer track linking
Vientiane, the capital, to the bridge.